coming top at culture

And, watching the telly and following twitter I thought I recognised something else happening - I thought I saw a generation realising that it was now Top at Culture. 30/40 somethings were suddenly seeing the stuff they liked, that they grew up with, was now the dominant cultural stuff. Their favourite things are now 'officially' mainstream, dominant culture. It's not alternative. It's it.

It made me think of Things Can Only Get Bitter and its hypothesis that a generation turned away from politics and decided, instead, to get good at culture.

It made me think of the global success of house music. It's so good and so overwhelming because it can absorb anything, any musical culture, in a way that rock never could.

It made me realise that the boomers have been gently elbowed aside. The sixties stuff was given a roughly equivalent prominence to Tiger Feet and Macca seemed a grudging concession to the grandparents; like playing some Mrs Mills at the end of a party. Hey Jude now signals that the fun's over and it's time to go home.

And it made me worry about geek triumphalism. The dominant culture - the culture of the Olympic opening ceremony - is now a culture that recognises Tim Berners Lee and a NeXTcube on sight and is aghast and appalled that other people don't. In loads of ways that's great. Fantastic. And I would think that wouldn't I? But there's also a danger that the geeks won't just be the next bankers, they(/we?) might also be the next boomers, squatting jealously over the culture, so good at it that no one else will get a look in for years.

But, overall, it made me absolutely bloody delighted and happy and proud. Millions and millions and millions of people also love Gregory's Girl and OMD and Brookside and Underworld and Evelyn Glennie and the shipping forecast and that is deeply joyous and important.